The history of modern credit cards is a perfect example of a great idea that rapidly snowballed from its original conception .

Barely 12 years after it started as the local experiment of a New York bank , the credit card had become an international success story . Approximately 50 years after that , it had transcended being a physical item entirely .

John Biggins invents the ‘ Charg-It ’ card

Introduction of the Diner ’ s Club Card

AmEx releases its first credit card

A Brooklyn-based banker named John Biggins laid the foundation for modern credit cards .

Available only to customers of Flatbush National Bank , the ‘ Charg-It ’ enabled the buyer to purchase items without paying for them immediately . Merchants would record sales and send deposit slips to the bank , which would then reimburse the merchant and bill the customer .

The next innovation came courtesy of Diner ’ s Club founder Frank McNamara .

The Diner ’ s Club would bill its members on a monthly basis and then reimburse restaurants that had received their patronage . McNamara ’ s card employed a similar idea to Biggins ’, but with a crucial difference : it was usable on a national scale .

Perhaps the first incarnation of the credit card as it is recognised today , American Express represented another leap forward by introducing consumer credit that was available internationally .

By the late 50s , people were increasingly on-the-move and AmEx pioneered a product that combined the security of traveller ’ s cheques with credit ’ s flexible payment terms .

16 June 2021